It is known to use elastic members providing a desired contact surface pressure for a diaper in order to improve fit to the wearer's body and to prevent body waste from leaking sideways from the diaper. For example, JP 2006-43015 A discloses a disposable diaper provided in front and rear waist regions with strand-like waist elastic elements extending in a transverse direction and strand-like leg elastic elements extending along peripheral edges of the leg-openings.
According to JP 2006-43015 A, the waist regions are provided with a plurality of strand-like waist elastic elements to improve fit of these waist regions to the wearer's body and a plurality of strand-like leg elements provided along the peripheral edges of the respective leg-openings to prevent body waste from leaking sideways from the diaper.
To prevent the diaper from being displaced on the wearer's body during use thereof, a predetermined or higher level of a contact surface pressure is required for the waist elastic elements. However, if the waist elastic elements evenly provide a relatively high contact surface pressure, the wearer often may feel a tightening in his or her waist as a whole, experience an oppressive feeling and/or have a surface imprint in a relatively soft region of his or her skin particularly when strand-like elastic members are used as the waist elastic elements.